Campbell’s Condensed Soups return to shelves

Campbell’s Condensed canned soups will be back on shelf in the UK next week for the first time in more than three years.

The range, which rolls out to Tesco from 1 August and other retailers later in the summer, will feature flavours from the original line-up Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Tomato, Cream of Chicken and Cream of Celery alongside new varieties Low Fat Chicken and Low Fat Mushroom.

All of the flavours (rsp: 82p) have been developed specifically for the UK market and are free from monosodium glutamate and artificial colours and flavours.

Campbell’s Condensed Soups immortalised by artist Andy Warhol in 1962 have been absent from British supermarkets since March 2008, when Premier Foods opted not to renew its licence to use the brand in the UK.

The Campbell’s name ­returned to the soup aisle this January after Symington’s producer of Golden Wonder: The Nation’s Noodle teamed up with US-based Campbell Soup Company to produce a range of cup soups and rice and pasta products.

The Campbell’s dry soup range has since captured a 6.6% value share of the dry soup market [Kantar Worldpanel 15 May 2011], and the companies have again teamed up to develop the canned products.

“It made sense to start with dry, but our heritage lies with condensed soups,” said Campbell developing markets director Mike Hollis, who claimed the business had received “hundreds of enquiries” about condensed soup.

About 70% of the use of condensed soups was as a cooking ingredient, said Symington’s marketing controller David Cherrie, and much of the marketing activity for the new products would focus on this. “We will be educating consumers about how they can use condensed soup in a range of recipes.”

The cans state ‘great for cooking’ on the label, and activity will include back-of-pack recipes, on-shelf recipe cards and an online database of recipes and cooking tips. Cherrie said he hoped the range would grow condensed’s share of the total UK soup market from about 5%.

Campbell's Condensed soups are an excellent addition to a busy cook's repertoire. First sampled it in British Columbia in mid-60s with a range of delicious easily digested recipes. Have developed my own ' recovering invalid ' version. Am now beginning to find Cr of Chicken again, but still searching for Celery ?? All help appreciated. JH

Delighted to hear that these soups will be back on the shelves. I have used them a lot in cooking over the years and when I heard that they would be gone from the shelves, stocked up on my favourites - tomato, chicken and mushroom - but they're all gone now. The big question is which supermarkets will stock them? And when?

Couldn't be more pleased to see the soup back. I used to use 1 tin of celery or asparagus to 1 carton of double cream to make the best pasta sauce ever. Just warm it through and add to pasta. My grandsons loved it.